A/N

Wow. A few of you actually want to kill me:D But I know you love me for coming back.

Characters don't belong to me. How's that?

xxx

"You can't blame him," Katara snapped. She didn't feel as if she was in her own skin anymore. "You can't blame Zuko for wanting to be with me rather than you."

The corners of Mai's lips jerked back, but she remained silent.

"At least I stand for something." Katara had the urge to break the spine of some object- anything. Any act of physical exertion would save her from this mounting sense of paralysis. "I stand for freedom. I would die for freedom. And you! You stand for whatever's right in front of you at the moment!"

"I have always cared for him," Mai said darkly.

"You let him die." Katara shook. Emotions struggled against each other for dominance. Anger won. "You might as well have killed him yourself!"

"He asked me to let him go!" Mai raised her voice for the first time in years. "It was his last request, and I gave it to him. Can you say that yourself?"

"Let him… go?"

"He…" Mai shook her head. She'd ruin Azula's lie. "I won't give you the satisfaction of knowing his last moments. Those are for me, not you."

"You're a monster!"

"You're a thief."

"I only took what willingly came to me."

"Temptress."

"Heartless!"

"You don't have any clue what I've been through. You can't judge me."

"Oh, right! To be on the winning side, sipping wine with your noble lady friends, feeling oh so bored while the rest of us fight to our deaths!"

"I'll kill you." Mai raised her arms to a fighting stance.

Katara's entire body tensed immediately. "I'd like to see you try."

xxx

Azula took a deep breath and smiled satisfactorily around her. "Do you hear that, Ty Lee?"

"I hear screaming, Princess."

"Exactly. That is the sound of progress being made. This city will soon fall to my father, the Great Fire Lord Ozai… I don't think I will rename this city. It should bear its own name in piteous shame. Ba Sing Se, with its ruler, Lord Ozai."

"Yes, Princess." Ty Lee muttered meekly.

"Mai's taking a long time on that peasant."

"I'm sure Mai is doing fine," Ty Lee said brightly. It occurred to her that that meant the Water Tribe boy's sister was dying.

"I should think so. Well, let's get this over with and find the Avatar. I'm catching Mai's spirit of boredom."

"What about setting a trap?"

"We've effectively incapacitated at least three of his companions." Azula noted dryly. "I don't think we have time to spare to find another."

"That's true."

"We will find him."
"But… how?"

"He will find me first," Azula grinned.

xxx

She sprinted through the streets. Her comrades would be furious if they found out she was late. Dodging a falling building, she ducked into a small shop and maneuvered through the edifice.

She could hardly believe she'd made it out of that battle alive. That girl was tougher than she looked!

At the final blow, she'd stood over her opponent, brandishing a weapon to the fallen girl's throat.

"This is for Zuko,"

"Do it quickly." The other replied, squeezing her eyes shut.

"No. I won't. I won't kill you, and that's the part for Zuko's sake." Her voice dropped lower. "If it was for my sake, you would be dead."

Katara had then turned away and left Mai to tend to her wounds on the ground.

She pushed her way through the empty shop, disappearing out of the back door and into another alley. Her comrades would be furious if they found out she was too late to save Aang from Azula.

xxx

"Stop," Azula halted, her attention snapping from one side to the other. The faint swoosh of an ancient weapon twirling in the air, manned by some small, capable hands: that's what she thought she had heard.

"The alley?" Ty Lee offered, gesturing into its abyss.

"We must be quiet," Azula ordered. "I don't want to scare our prey away."

They stepped lithely through the rubble and further into the alley, their shoes making crackling noises despite their attempts to keep silent. At the far end, light shone across the top of a halved building, throwing itself onto the walls and the back of a red-clothed Avatar.

"Good job." He said dryly and remained facing the wall. "You only had to tear down the whole city to find me."

"The city was part of my purpose." Azula replied calmly. "Let's make this quick, Avatar. I want to spend the least amount of time possible in this mudhole. You want to bargain. Make your offers."

"I will not compromise."

Azula huffed. "You really are just a child! In a few moments, I will have officially overtaken Ba Sing Se in the name-."

"No, you won't."

"Excuse me?"

Finally, he turned slowly to them. His face was badly cut, and he seemed to want it to be that way. Taught and small, his lips did not look his own, and his eyes were sharp and joyless. The boy had died.

"Here are my terms, Princess. You will leave the city, and you will not return. I will take any soldiers already in the city as prisoners of war. Understand?"

"It would be less funny if you had some base on which to stand on, but you don't." Azula mocked him. "Are you blind? Don't you see where you are? The city is teeming with my soldiers who are about to breech the palace wall. I have you stuck in this alley for my taking. Oh, and not to mention, I've already killed your friends."

Aang did not flinch. "You're lying."

She turned to her companion. "Ty Lee?"

"They are dead," she mumbled.

Aang's grip on his staff tightened, but that was the only change. "Well then, that changes some of my terms."

Azula's lips curled in amusement. "Oh does it?"

"You will leave the city only if I have no successfully avenged my friends."

"You know, you're still leaving out the part where I have you cornered!"

"Correct." Aang widened his stance and swung his arms in arc above his head. At the same time, the three-story rock wall behind him disappeared into the earth, sinking faster than the girls could judge where it was going. Then, with another swoop of his arms, a solid wall rose behind the Princess, whooshing as it cut through the air.

"Now," he continued patiently. "I have you cornered."

Before either girl could postulate action, Aang ground his heel into the dirt and a screaming Ty Lee sank up to her shoulders in the earth.

"You're bolder than I give you credit for, Avatar." Azula said softly, admiring his handiwork.

"Please… I… can't breathe.…" Ty Lee pleaded.

"Our terms?" Aang pressed.

"If I was to give in that easily, do you think my father would have sent me?" Azula snapped.

Immediately, the two leapt into action, blocking severe initial blows and dancing around each other in bright currents of fire and air.

xxx

Katara didn't want to believe what she was seeing in the alley. Aang looked more inhuman than ever, snarling in a fury she didn't know he could possess. Azula seemed normal, taking measured steps and firebending simply as if she was trying to wear him down, and her friend's head was sticking up from the ground, gasping and grimacing in obvious pain.

She discreetly slipped into the alley and knelt beside Ty Lee. The girl's eyes were bright with tears.

"Please…help."

"Be still," Katara urged, trying to wriggle her fingers between the dirt and Ty Lee's arm. "I'll try waterbending you out. Try not to move."

"No…problem." Ty Lee panted.

Katara flicked open her water cask and drenched the earth around Ty Lee. The moisture clumped the dirt together and made it so that Katara could pull up on it, but as she did so, the prisoner only jerked forward and sank back into the mud.

"Oh no…" Ty Lee mumbled.

"It's okay," Katara assured her. She glanced over her shoulder at Aang and Azula; they were still too preoccupied to notice her.

She pushed the water fully around Ty Lee's body, trying to pull her out that way, and she slowly formed a liquid cocoon and successfully hauled her out of her trap. Ty Lee popped out from the ground and wheezed like a fish out of water. Immediately Katara froze her wrist to the wall, inhibiting her from moving.

Ty Lee was gesturing madly at Katara to stay and listen. Looking back once more at Aang, Katara crouched beside her.

"I had to do that," Katara explained firmly. "I can't have you running away."

"I know. I know. I would've done the same thing." Ty Lee agreed. "Well… maybe not the saving part-."

"You're stalling." Katara turned to go.

"No! Katara… Please… I'm sorry."

Katara raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"Your brother… and Zuko… I'm so sorry."

So Mai hadn't been lying. Katara took an unsteady breath of stale air. "You aren't even human, are you?"

"I know you can't forgive me, but just… Just know that I will always regret what we did."

Katara shook her head. She couldn't deal with such a colossal loss right now. Aang needed her- the city needed her!

"Keep out of my way." Katara warned the girl. "I took Mai down, and I'll take you too."

Ty Lee nodded feverishly.

Before Katara could turn around to survey the fight, her head snapped back and Azula laughed obnoxiously in her ear.

"Now what, Avatar?"

Azula had Katara pinned in her arms, with two fingers pressed to her exposed throat. The three of them didn't move or speak. Aang began to switch his staff back and forth between his hands, pondering the current situation. Nothing was simple those days.

"That's pretty low, Azula." Aang breathed. "Let her go. She has nothing to do with this. This is between you and me."

"It's called collateral. Give yourself up, Avatar; this is the end."

Aang dropped his gaze.

"It's one life for thousands, Aang!" Katara shouted. "Sacrifice me for the world… Please… Don't-."

Azula shouldered Katara. "I don't believe anyone ever asked for your opinion. Avatar, make this decision a quick one. I haven't got all day."

Aang's focus went to the top of the wall behind them: the one he'd moved. If he could do that, why couldn't he figure this out? These untaught skills were haunting him daily now, and if he didn't learn soon… There had to be some way out of this. He could convince Azula to take Katara away- but why would she do that; he was right here.

Movement on his wall caught his eyes, and he froze.

"Avatar…" Azula threatened.

"I am thinking, Princess." He said dully.

A man's shape appeared on the skyline. An L-shaped club was raised above his head.

"Now!" Aang screamed.

A boomerang flew from the sky and thumped Azula in the back of her head. She swayed on her feet for a few moments, released Katara and slumped gracelessly to the ground. The three remaining conscious people in the alley looked up towards the giant clouds of dust and smoke above them.

"S-Sokka?" Katara whispered.

"He's alive." Ty Lee sighed.

"And she won't be."

Again, the three spun around to focus on the man behind them, poised above his sister's body in a firebending stance.

"Zuko!" Katara exclaimed.

"Don't." Aang insisted. "You aren't your sister, so don't kill her."

"She would have killed Sokka, just the same." He replied coldly.

"But she didn't." Aang stepped forward and grasped his shoulder. "This battle is over. Leave it here."

"We picked up Mai." Sokka chimed in from down the alley. He dropped a figure onto the ground. "So… are we all accounted for?"

Katara grinned at her brother. "We're all here."

Still, Zuko would not drop his arm. "We're supposed to just turn them in? Just let them get away with what they've done?"

In spite of the miraculous reunion, the alley was solemn. "Yes," Katara and Aang chorused.

Zuko snarled, "No! It can't be this way! So good wins over evil, and evil is just going to sit in the corner and do their time? This is madness! Don't you care about what they've done? Shouldn't they pay?!"

"If we let the past take over us," Katara said gently, "then they would win no matter who is standing in the end."

Zuko's body relaxed as her words soaked in. "So… So this is it?"

"We'll let Wu have them." Aang nodded. "And that's it."

"This is what happens when the good guys win, Zuko." Sokka said proudly. He clasped him on the back amiably. "I know it's kind of a new thing to you."

Katara stepped forward and closed their circle. "We should get this cleaned up now, huh?"

Aang studied their surroundings. "We'll have to get a cart over here to haul them off. We should tie and gag Azula and Ty Lee. And what about…" He trailed off. No one was too keen in listening.

"Aang," Katara embraced him firmly. "I thought you were all dead… Let's forget about purpose for just one moment, and let's just be."

xxx

Battle had numbed their senses enough not to care that the city was literally in pieces or that if left untended, their gaping wounds would probably kill them or even that at last the infamous princess of the Fire Nation was captured. All they knew was that they were one step closer to home.

Every few feet, each member of the group would look wildly around at his or her companions- just to be sure they were still there.

Eventually each would tell their tale. In the end, no one would know where exactly they were specifically; it didn't matter. The stories would all blend and pool together into a collective history to be lived through, learned from, and left alone.

xxx

A/N

Well… When you rush dream she gives you rush back. I wish I could redo this, but I need to get it all out and published before the premier.

And you all should've known better than to think I would've let Zuko die! Pfft. Sillies.